Physical Descriptions of Jefferson

From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

1781-1824 Isaac Jefferson, slave at Monticello:
Mr. Jefferson was a tall, straight-bodied man as ever you see, right square-shouldered. Nary a man in this town (Petersburg) walked so straight as my Old Master. Neat a built man as ever was seen in Vaginny . . . . a straight-up man, long face, high nose.

1790 William Maclay:
Jefferson is a slender man; has rather the air of stiffness in his manners; his clothes seem too small for him . . . one shoulder elevated above the other (while sitting)

1801-09 Samuel Harrison Smith (?):
The stature of Jefferson was lofty and erect; his motions flexible and easy; neither remarkable for, nor deficient in grace; and such were his strength and agility. . . .

1802 William Plumer:
a tall, highboned man

1806-22 Edmund Bacon, overseer at Monticello:
Mr. Jefferson was six feet two and half inches high, well proportioned and straight as a gun barrel. He was like a fine horse; he had no surplus flesh

His countenance was always mild and pleasant

1807 Sir Augustus John Foster:
appearance being very much like that of a large-boned farmer

was very tall and bony

1808 Frances Few:
he is a tall thin man very dignified in his appearance

his face is short and his nose and chin approach each other -- his teeth are good he shews but little of them when he laughs -- he stoops very much but holds his head high

1809-26 B. L. Rayner:
a strong and sprightly step

the tall and animated, and stately figure

1815 Francis Calley Gray:
His figure bony, long and with broad shoulders, a true Virginian.

1816 Francis Hall:
I found Mr. Jefferson tall in person, but stooping and lean with old age, thus exhibiting the fortunate mode of bodily decay, which strips the frame of its most cumbersome parts, leaving it still strength of muscle and activity of limb.

1820 Isaac Briggs:
His 77th year finds him strong, active and in full possession of a sound mind. He rides a trotting horse and sits on him straight as a young man.

1820 Adam Hodgson:
Mr. Jefferson's appearance is rather prepossessing. He is tall and very thin, a little bent with age . . .

1822 Reverand S. A. Bumstead:
his hair is quite thick

his features regular

. . . he was remarkably erect and had every appearance of antiquity about him.

1822 D. P. Thompson:
Mr. Jefferson a tall, straight [man]

c. 1822 Judith Walker Rives:
his tall figure had lost none of its uprightness

1823 Alexander H. H. Stuart:
raw boned man, with rather large hands

1824 Daniel Webster:
above six feet high, of an ample long frame, rather thin and spare. His head, which is not peculiar in its shape, is set rather forward on his shoulders, and his neck being long, there is, when he is walking or conversing, an habitual protusion of it. It is still well covered with hair. . .

His eyes are small

His chin is rather long, but not pointed, his nose small, regular in its outline, and the nostrils a little elevated. His mouth is well formed and still filled with teeth; it is generally strongly compressed, bearing an expression of contentment and benevolence.

His limbs are uncommonly long, his hands and feet very large, and his wrists of a most extraordinary size. His walk is not precise and military, but easy and swinging; he stoops a little, not so much from age, as from natural formation. When sitting he appears short partly from the disproportionate length of his limbs

His general appearance indicates an extraordinary degree of health, vivacity, and spirit.

1824 Samuel Whitcomb, Jr.:
He is tall and very straight excepting his neck which appears limber and inclined to crook. His hair is long and thin.

Ante 1826 George Tucker:
In person he was above six feet high, thin and erect.

Original Author: Zanne Macdonald, Monticello Research Department, July 1992

Pictured: miniature portrait of Jefferson (1788) by John Trumbull; copy of the second life portrait of Jefferson (1805) by Rembrandt Peale; copy of the second life portrait of Jefferson (1805) by Rembrandt Peale.